Terry P. Abeyta

Although practicing in the most conservative area of the state, Terry P. Abeyta has earned recognition as one of the top plaintiff’s personal injury attorneys in Washington. He recovered $6.9 million on a bleacher fall case (the largest settlement in the history of Yakima County), $6.25 million on a car-truck crash (the largest settlement in the history of Franklin County), $4.1 million on a car crash case (the largest settlement in the history of Kittitas County), $3.5 million on a school playground case, the highest settlements in the history of Grant County ($2.5 million), Klickitat County ($2.5 million) and Stevens County ($1.3 million). In addition, Terry achieved the largest recovery on an uninsured motorist case in Yakima County history, the largest jury verdict on a cervical soft-tissue case in Yakima County, and obtained a $700,000 settlement for the children of a 39-year-old Native American man who committed suicide in the Yakima Tribal Jail. Terry has tried 50 jury trials and arbitrated hundreds of cases.

Terry was the first plaintiff’s attorney from Central Washington chosen for The Best Lawyers in America, the first in Central Washington named to the Super Lawyer list, has been named a Super Lawyer every year since 1999, and has been named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in America. The National Association of Distinguished Counsel has included Terry in their Nation’s Top One Percent of Attorneys list. From 2022-2024, Terry was named Plaintiff’s Personal Injury Lawyer of the Year for Central Washington by The Best Lawyers in America.

Terry is is a member of Damages Attorney Round Table, a small, exclusive invitation-only group of the top personal injury lawyers in Washington state. He is past president of the Washington Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, has served in many leadership roles for the Washington State Association for Justice, and is a past president of the Yakima County Bar Association. He has received WSAJ’s Alvin Anderson award for outstanding contribution to building WSAJ’s Eagle membership.

Terry was born and raised in Yakima, Washington. He graduated at the top of his class from Yakima Valley College, at the top of his class from Whitman College, and in the top 15 percent of his class at University of Washington School of Law. He worked his way through college as a newspaper reporter for the Yakima-Herald Republic, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin (owned by the Seattle Times), and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In his non-lawyer life, Terry enjoys spending time with his family, playing tennis, working out, playing guitar, listening to music, hiking, gardening, and trying to keep up with the activities of his eight grandchildren. He’s blessed that all of them live in Yakima.